Spruga

Spruga (La Sprüga in Ticinese dialect, Sprugg in Swiss German) is a village in the Swiss municipality of Onsernone, in the district of Locarno, in the canton of Ticino. It lies on the sunny, south-facing slopes above the Isorno river on the border of Italy. The first recorded mention of Spruga goes back to the year 1285. Spruga is the last village on the sole road into the Onsernone Valley as well as the nearest settlement to the thermal baths at Bagni di Craveggia where a 6-story hotel, now in ruins but open to the public, was built in 1819. In the 19th century, visitors to the baths had to take an 8-hour carriage ride from Locarno to Comologno and then walk the last three to four kilometers on a dirt trail through Spruga with their luggage on mules or carried by locals. Mail service was brought into and from the Onsernone Valley on foot to Loco, where mail was then distributed and collected.

An upgraded road to Comologno was built between 1898 and 1900. Since 1932, when the old foot- and mule path between Spruga and Comologno was upgraded to a road, Spruga has been tied into Switzerland's extensive public transit system by PostBus Switzerland which offers connections from morning until late evening as well as providing mail service. Similar to other remote, mountainous regions in Switzerland, the large Post buses have become a key feature of the region and a tourist attraction in their own right, as they traverse up and down the valley's narrow, winding road, sounding their iconic three-tone horn to warn cars and pedestrians of their approach, often passing through villages with only centimeters of clearance from buildings on either side.